Night time use of the toilet begs for some degree of illumination, but not so bright as to disrupt the user's night adapted vision. The man of the house will appreciate the benefit of a lighted target and the lady may be spared annoyance. A light activated by seat position will also provide socially desireable training to the toilet seat positionally insensative male. While prior art has offered numerous devices wherein a light, activated by raising the seat, illuminates a toilet bowl, no such item is available in today's market. Cost, of course, is always a factor in the volume of sales of any non-essential item, but the fact that prior offerings have not gained popular acceptance indicates that an unperceived aspect of the need is yet to be satisfied.
Applicant has identified sanitation as an inherent failing common to all previous offerings. Any device installed in an exposed area, either on the seat ring or in the bowl is inevitably subject to contamination, particularly fecal splatter. An object of the present invention is therefore, to provide bowl illumination by a seat ring position actuated device which is not exposed to such contamination. A second object is to provide such a device in a simple unit having inexpensive and easily assembled components.
The present invention accomplishes these objectives by providing a device which, unlike previous teachings, fits on the rearmost, near vertical, face of a toilet seat ring. Here, the device moves away from the bowl interior as the seat ring rotates downward to the horizontal position and rotates forward to illuminate the bowl when the seat is raised to the vertical position. A switch is provided to activate the device and illuminate the bowl when the seat ring is vertical.